In the same vein as disaster movies Independence Day and Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow presents a foreboding outlook for what can lie ahead in our future. In that respect, it leaves other disaster movies in the dust. The coming of the next Ice Age is accelerated by human-enhanced global warming, which provides an unsettling truth to what is shown on the big screen. The science providing backing for the three horrific storms that change the northern hemisphere is convincing enough for an average-Joe like me, and doesn’t become a distraction to the movie. A huge plus.
The foundation for the film is based on Jack and Sam Hall (Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, respectfully), a father-son duo whose bond of trust is pushed to an ultimate extreme as Jack travels by foot to save his snow-bound son who is trapped in the New York Public Library. With Father’s Day coming around the corner, the relationship is poignant and moving. Combined with the message of family, political topics such as global warming, foreign policy and illegal immigration are also tackled. These themes, in the end, provide a provocative experience; causing you to leave the theater thinking about what is presented to you.
But with all disaster films, the story and characters are only icing for the cake of special effects and destruction. The storms, the tornadoes , the flooding of Manhattan Island are terribly real. I have never been so nervous about a disaster movie before. To see walls of water washing away the traffic jams of NYC is a truly unsettling sight. The effects team did a brilliant job of utilizing technology used in Twister and A Perfect Storm, as well as introducing a unique freezing system, and combining them all into a blockbuster smash.
With the Memorial Day weekend kicking off the summer movie season, The Day After Tomorrow provides a grand, adrenalin-pumping opener. As the season’s token disaster flick, it is an amazingly good film. It takes what is typically a far-fetched genre and makes it much more believable, in a disturbingly phenomenal way.
FOUR OUT OF FOUR STARS
Overall- This is best I have seen Dennis Quaid... like that matters. It’s an action-packed thriller, with all the special effects and destruction any disaster movie fan would want.
Side Note-
I am also going to try and see Saved! this weekend. If I do the review will be up afterwards.
The foundation for the film is based on Jack and Sam Hall (Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, respectfully), a father-son duo whose bond of trust is pushed to an ultimate extreme as Jack travels by foot to save his snow-bound son who is trapped in the New York Public Library. With Father’s Day coming around the corner, the relationship is poignant and moving. Combined with the message of family, political topics such as global warming, foreign policy and illegal immigration are also tackled. These themes, in the end, provide a provocative experience; causing you to leave the theater thinking about what is presented to you.
But with all disaster films, the story and characters are only icing for the cake of special effects and destruction. The storms, the tornadoes , the flooding of Manhattan Island are terribly real. I have never been so nervous about a disaster movie before. To see walls of water washing away the traffic jams of NYC is a truly unsettling sight. The effects team did a brilliant job of utilizing technology used in Twister and A Perfect Storm, as well as introducing a unique freezing system, and combining them all into a blockbuster smash.
With the Memorial Day weekend kicking off the summer movie season, The Day After Tomorrow provides a grand, adrenalin-pumping opener. As the season’s token disaster flick, it is an amazingly good film. It takes what is typically a far-fetched genre and makes it much more believable, in a disturbingly phenomenal way.
FOUR OUT OF FOUR STARS
Overall- This is best I have seen Dennis Quaid... like that matters. It’s an action-packed thriller, with all the special effects and destruction any disaster movie fan would want.
Side Note-
I am also going to try and see Saved! this weekend. If I do the review will be up afterwards.
I really liked the movie, and I do think that it would have had dragged out too much if it was longer.
What was the reaction in the room on the following scenes: the one when the vice-president dismisses the Kyoto Agreement and the potential dangers of damaging the environment, and the one when the Americans were shown illegally invading Mexico and everyone only being accepted after the US granted a pardon to Latin America's debt? I ask because down here people have cheered and/or laughed on those particular scenes... With the issues raised after 9/11, and the fact that it's getting harder and harder to even take a vacation in the US, people down here felt like it was payback time, at least in fiction. :lol: I gotta admit it sure was amusing to see that... No harm intended, obviously. 
